Monday, July 30, 2012

When I posted on the Chick-fil-a controversy last week, I
mentioned that I did not pay much attention to it at first.I thought it was just more lib city
silliness.But the more I think
about it, the more I see its importance.

The bullying of Chick-fil-a brings together the Left’s wars on
freedom of speech and freedom of religion.The business is being attacked because the CEO, out of his
deeply held Christian beliefs, has publicly supported traditional marriage and
supported groups that share those values. That governments are joining in on
the attack makes this all the more important.

Now the mayors of Boston and of Chicago are backing down
somewhat.Perhaps advisors
whispered in their ears that Obama has not abolished the Constitution yet.But the dangerous nature of their attacks
remain.

For Leftist governments and activists in the West are using two
tactics that we see in this controversy.First, they are attacking freedom of religion while insisting they are
doing no such thing.They do this
by “defining religious liberty down” by defining it as “freedom of worship” (as
I’ve warned over a year ago), that you can worship in private as you please, but to actually
live out your religious beliefs out in the world is another matter.In daily life, the Almighty State is a
jealous god that must be served, regardless of one’s petty outdated religious
beliefs.

Second, they are attacking freedom of speech, both directly as
the city governments of Boston and Chicago threatened to do, or indirectly by
defining politically incorrect speech as “bigotry” unworthy of protection and
worthy of vicious attack.The
bigot card is becoming more and more common in attempts to demonize opponents
and shut down debate.

William Jacobson opines that the use of the bigot card is
accelerating now that Obama is on the politically correct side of the gay
marriage debate.But it is hard to
miss that its use was becoming more frequent well before then.Voicing traditional conservative views
on social issues practically guarantees being smeared as a “bigot.”

Now people with backbones can handle the insults of the evil and
of the stupid.But with the mentality
of the Left, it is a short step from attacking “bigoted” speech to banning it
with the force of the government, as Christians and conservatives in the West have
already experienced.

So this is why I hope Christians and conservatives do not let up
in defending Chick-fil-a and in counterattacking the mayors of Boston and
Chicago and their ilk.The Left
must taught and taught well that if you attack freedom of speech and freedom of
religion in America, there is hell to pay. Those moral midgets who hate freedom must be put in their
place for the sake of the rest of us who still value freedom.

Friday, July 27, 2012

It’s not close to Halloween yet, much less Election
Day.But the Obama campaign is
trying to scare women . . . literally.From their new ad . . . which is pretty much the same as any number of
old Democrat ads:

“I’ve never felt this way before, but it’s a scary time to be a
woman,” says 30-something “Jenni.” “Mitt Romney is just so out of touch.”

Oh, and that claim about Romney opposing exceptions for
rape and incest? Not true.I know.
A Democrat campaign lying is just so shocking.Politifact gave that part of the ad a “Pants on Fire”
rating.

As for expecting women (and men) to pay for their own
contraception being “scary,” I would hope there are lot of women out there who
find that part of the ad downright insulting.The woman at the first link certainly does.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Last night, I was thinking that the fascist attacks on Chick-fil-a
by the mayors of Boston and Chicago are providing the Democrat Party and Obama
with a golden opportunity to do the right – and politically smart – thing.

Obama and allies should follow the good example of Bill Clinton
(I never thought I’d write that phrase.) and have a Sister Souljah moment. They should denounce government
attempts to ban Chick-fil-a. I
think they would gain a great deal of political good will if they did so, just
as Bill Clinton did.

And I was going to write as much this morning. I thought I would be breaking new
ground. But Mark Hemmingway beat
me to it. Oh well. Brilliant minds and all that.

My post yesterday should suffice in spelling out why I think it
would be the right thing to do.
Why it would be politically smart as well? Obama and the Democrat Party have fueled, especially of
late, the largely correct perception that they owned by the political
Left. The actions of the fascist
Democrat mayors only make that situation worse. And even many who support gay marriage oppose their attacks
on Chick-fil-a.

Obama and allies have a golden opportunity to appear reasonable
and not part of the extreme Left Chick-fil-a banning crowd.
And what an opportunity for his teleprompter!: “Here in America we cherish freedom of speech, even the
freedom of speech of those with whom we deeply disagree. We don’t try to use the power of the
government to silence people.
That’s not America, and that’s not American. Real tolerance is a two way street in America. I disagree with the CEO of Chick-fil-a
on the issue of gay marriage. But
it is my pleasure and duty as President to defend his right, and the rights of all Americans,
to disagree with me. Now some may
disagree with me for saying that.
So be it. We are America
where freedom of speech is sacred and always will be – always must be.”

See how easy that is? I did that off the top of my head. It practically writes itself. And people would love it. Even an Obama-hater like me would give
him points for doing the right thing.
It could be the Sister Souljah moment he needs.

Now why the heck am I, of all people, giving Obama and the
Democrats free advice?

Because I think they are indeed too wedded to the Left to have
the vision and the guts to do it.
We shall see.

Update: In the headline, I thought "denounce" and wrote "renounce". Wake up, Mark! Corrected now.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

When the news first came out that the Mayor of Boston
wanted to ban Chick-fil-a from his fair city because CEO Dan Cathy refused to
toe the politically correct line on gay marriage, I did not pay much attention
to be honest.I figured lib cities
on the coasts do silly things, and this was just another silly thing.

But as I have reflected on it, I have become alarmed. For governments discriminating against
people and their businesses simply for openly holding traditional conservative
views is reason for alarm. Do we
really think it will stop with Boston?
Or with the issue of gay marriage for that matter?

Now if individual Bostonians, or Lisa Henson for that
matter, want to be jerks and boycott Chick-fil-a for political incorrectness,
that is their right. Others of us
will in turn give the chain more business. Heck, I love their sandwiches, waffle fries, and lemonade. Annoying the Left will just make my
meal more delicious.

But for a government
to bully a business over religious or political views?

If people are no longer entitled to
their own opinions, or to think what they think, then we are not free people, at
all. Period. Full stop. That’s a fundamental as it gets.

Further she says what the Mayor of Boston is doing “reeks of
fascism.” And I completely agree.
Yet there are plenty of people cheering him on.

When Jonah Goldberg came out with his book Liberal
Fascism, both the title and the thesis seemed a bit over the top. But people of the Left even in the
United States are acting more like fascists all the time. The Nazis boycotted the businesses of Jewish people. Many on the Left apparently want to imitate that episode and, with the support of government, boycott the businesses of conservative Christians.

Whatever happened to “tolerance”? Methinks that word has been used and abused
as a euphemism for crushing those who disagree with political correctness.

MORE: I should have noted that the quote in my post title
comes from The Anchoress herself.
Again, I commend her post to you.

UPDATE: Now Chicago is going fascist, too.An alderman will attempt to block a
permit to open a Chick-fil-a in the 1st Ward.He has the support of Mayor Rahm Emanuel,
who said in a statement, “Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values.”

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

If one thinks the sordid ABC News Brian Ross episode
smearing an innocent tea partier as perhaps the Aurora movie theater gunman is
a one off, think again.Time after time, the “mainstream” news media has been eager to link violence to tea
partiers when there was no link:

* September 2009: The discovery of hanged census-taker Bill
Sparkman in rural Kentucky fueled media speculation that he’d been killed by
anti-government Tea Partiers. In fact, he’d killed himself and staged his
corpse to look like a homicide so his family could collect on life insurance.

* February 2010: Joe Stack flew his small plane into an IRS
building in Austin, Texas. The media immediately suggested that the anti-tax
rhetoric of the Tea Party led to the attack. In fact, Stack’s suicide note
quoted the Communist Manifesto.

* That same month, a professor at the University of Alabama, Amy
Bishop, shot and killed three colleagues at a faculty meeting. The gun-loving
Tea Party came under immediate suspicion. But Bishop was a lifelong Democrat
and Obama donor. . . .

* May 2010: New York authorities disarmed a massive car bomb in
Times Square. Mayor Bloomberg immediately speculated that the bomber was
someone upset about the president’s new health-care law. The media trumpeted
the idea that crazed conservatives had (again, they implied) turned to
violence. In fact, the perp was Faisal Shahzad, an Islamic extremist.

And there’s more instances at the above link. Is there violence out there? Could it be the EVIL RACIST Tea Party??
Blame Righty!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Well, not quite.But the latest CBS-New York Times poll looks really ugly for Obama.And that’s almost the same thing. Romney being up 1 is just the beginning.

I defer to Gabriel Malor’s excellent breakdown.But I think two aspects of the poll are
particularly important.First, Mr.
Wonderful ain’t so wonderful anymore with bad favorability numbers.

I’ve never fully bought the view that people like Obama
all that much, not since 2009 at least.But they certainly are liking him less now.Which leads to my second point . . .

“Nobody cares about Bain.” That might be overstating the
situation. Surely someone out there
cares about Bain.But after
millions of Obama money bashing Romney with lies and half-truths about Bain,
with words like “felon” being tossed out there to boot, it appears not to be
working much.It does appear to have made Obama look like
the thug he is, which is likely a factor in his lower favorable numbers.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Yes, yes, I know.This is old news already.And it’s all over the internet and talk
radio.Heck, Rush Limbaugh
today allowed his engineer to play it whenever the spirit moved him. That made for interesting listening.

But the more I think about it,
the more amazed I am by it.And
simply reading what Obama said does not give the full impact. Watch and listen
. . .

Obama’s arrogance and condescension towards business
owners, big and small, just oozes through.

I could try to say something profound.But what is there to say about such
breathtaking chutzpah?Well, yes, there
is a lot that could be said actually.

For now, perhaps it is best to say that Obama’s statement
should serve as a good reality check as to the sort of arrogance and economic
illiteracy that currently holds sway in the Oval Office.

Does the brazenness of The
Episcopal Church know any bounds? Its General Theological Seminary has awarded David Booth Beers an honorary doctorate.That’s right.He is
--Schori’s lawyer in suing the faithful and kicking them out of their properties.

And that’s the very reason
he was awarded the degree:

David Booth Beers, Esq. is a noted attorney and Chancellor to the Presiding
Bishop. He is of counsel to the law firm Goodwin Proctor where he has an
extensive national and international practice in the non-profit sector. He has led the legal effort of the Episcopal
Church to safe guard the rights and property of the church, dioceses and
parishes from the plans of those who have broken away from the church and yet
attempted to take church property with them. He has worked closely for
many years with the Church History faculty of the Seminary in his support of
the church and enjoys wide and deep respect. He is an active layman in St.
Patrick’s Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Washington.

I could rant and carry on about what an outrage it is so
to award suing the faithful.But
perhaps I should instead remind myself that it could be worse.I mean at least an Episcopalian seminary
is not yet led by, say, a worshipper of Moloch, right?

Sunday, July 15, 2012

. . . which just
happens to be my first sermon as an Anglican.When the Rector is away . . .

The sermon was part of
Morning Prayer in which the Lessons were Nehemiah 8: 1-12 and Luke 11:37-end.The Psalm was 119:41-72.

Hearing and Responding to the
Word of God

The walls of Jerusalem have
just been rebuilt.And now it is
the Feast of Trumpets, what we call today Rosh Hashanah.And on this high occasion, the scrolls
of the Torah, the Law of Moses, are brought out to be read by Ezra to the great
assembly.

We read of this occasion in
the first lesson this morning, in Nehemiah, chapter 8.The Book of Nehemiah is somewhat
neglected, but it should not be so.It deals chiefly with Nehemiah’s successful campaign to rebuild the
walls of Jerusalem after the Exile.And this book has a lot to teach us about how to perform important works
for God in the face of opposition.But time does not permit us to examine that subject this morning.

What I do want us to
examine was how the Word of God was taught and received on that special Feast
of Trumpets of 444 B. C. just after the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.

In 8:3, this passage tells
us that Ezra read to the people from the Law, which is the first five books of
our Bible, “from early morning until midday.”

Now, on a normal day, that
is not a practical schedule for most of us.But there is a lot to be said for setting aside a day or a half-day
from time to time for Bible reading, reflection, and prayer.Among the benefits are that setting
aside such extended times allows time for the Word to sink in.And it allows time to reflect on what
our response to the Word should be.

On this occasion, the nation
of Israel used their liturgical calendar to do that.And our church year provides opportunities for that as
well.Vacation time also provides
opportunities as I was recently blessed to experience in New Mexico.Even sick time can provide an opportunity
for extended time in the Word.Better to read the Bible and reflect on it in bed than just lay there
and reflect on being sick.

So Ezra read for half a
day.Now note how the people
listened: “The ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.”And that is saying something.Because let’s be honest.Better yet, I’ll be honest.There are times when my attention
strays when the Bible is read or taught.I know that’s shocking, but it’s true.

You know, kids are the ones
who are supposed to have short attention spans.But my attention span keeps getting shorter as I get older!

There is something strange
about human nature -- we are so easily distracted from what is vital by what is
trivial.We need to fight that
tendency with God’s help and pay close attention to His word.

Note now what accompanied
the reading of the Word.

And
Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the
people, and as he opened it all the people stood.And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people
answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and
worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

This was a special
occasion, but the reading of God’s word should always be accompanied by worship
and prayer.That’s one reason our
services of Morning and Evening Prayer, and of the Holy Communion as well, are
structured as they are, with both the reading of scripture and prayer.

Our hearts and minds can be
really slow to understand the things of God, and we need his help to do
so.Also, we should always be
thankful that God has spoken to us and given us His Holy Word.So prayer very much goes with the
reading of scripture.

And when our heavenly
Father speaks to us we should respond.One of my favorite prayer book prayers of response, and a prayer for
response, to his word is:

Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that the words
which we have heard this day with our outward ears may, through thy grace, be
so grafted inwardly in our hearts, that they may bring forth in us the fruit of
good living; to the honour and praise of thy Name, through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.

And that is an appropriate
prayer indeed.

Then the passage from
Nehemiah 8 lets us know of very practical assistance given to the people so
that they could understand the reading of scripture.

In verse 7, a number of men
with interesting names “helped the
people to understand the Law. . . . They gave the sense, so that the people
understood the reading.”

Commentators differ as to
exactly what was happening here.Some think that the men were translating the Law.For many, perhaps most of the people, that
returned from the 70 year exile in Babylon, Hebrew was no longer their first
language as in previous generations, but Chaldee instead.Many needed some translation.

Others think that the men
were interpreting the Law in plain everyday language to make it easier for the
people to understand.And it is
certainly possible that the men did both.

We would be wise to avail
ourselves of learned interpreters and commenters on the Word.We are certainly blessed to have one as
our Rector.And, by the way, one
important reason for regular church attendance is to hear the Word taught.

Beyond these walls, learned
interpreters, such as the church fathers, are available to us as never
before.For example, you may have
seen a 38 volume set of the Church Fathers. I was fortunate to get to buy Fr. John’s set, and it is in my
library.But now you don’t have to
spend the money and find the space for it.It’s all available online.

And I think it a good thing
to read the church fathers and the reformers as time permits, and not only
modern books.C. S. Lewis wrote an
essay entitled “On the Reading of Old Books,” and in it he said, “It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow
yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” And he puts forth his reasons for that, one of
which is that each age has its characteristic errors, including our own.“We all, therefore, need the books that
will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period.And that means the old books.”

Allow me to add that, given
many of the new books one finds even in Christian bookstores, C. S. Lewis’
advice surely goes double today!

Now, of course, we must
remember that neither the Church Fathers nor the Reformers were
infallible.But we are not
infallible either and can easily fall into errant private interpretation if we read
the Bible without learned and godly guidance.So it is indeed wise to allow ourselves the assistance of
good interpreters.

At the same time, the best
interpreter of scripture is scripture, as Fr. Ben often reminds us.So the more we read the Bible, the more
we equip ourselves to understand it.

But as we read the Bible
and listen to interpreters of the Word, let us beware of two pitfalls of which
we are warned by Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees in our 2nd Lesson.

First, not all interpreters
are trustworthy, even if they might be happen to be highly respected.Who were the most highly
respected Bible teachers of Jesus’ day?The Pharisees!It is easy
to forget that since they have such a bad name today, but they were.Yet they led people astray.Today also there are false teachers who
are fawned over and respected – Brian MacLaren comes to mind – but they are
false teachers nonetheless.

The second pitfall is to
allow increasing Bible knowledge to increase our pride.I’ve witnessed a mentality in some
Christian circles that Bible knowledge = righteousness.But the Pharisees were very
knowledgeable about the Law and thought themselves righteous.And we see what the Lord thought of
their supposed righteousness.

Really, increased Bible
knowledge should lead to increased humility and repentance as we find out more
and more about God’s standards – and more and more about how we fall short of
His standards.In fact, in
Nehemiah 8, that is exactly how the people responded to the reading of the
Word.

And now let us do note the
response of those people to God’s word.

For many, perhaps most, of
the people, this was the first time they had heard so much of the Word of God
systematically read to them.And
when they heard parts of the Word that they saw they had not been living out as
they should, they wept.Now part
of that may have been the emotion of the occasion.But for the most part, it was heartfelt repentance.When they heard parts of God’s Law that
they saw they were not doing, they grieved.So much so that the leaders made a point to calm the people
down and to remind them that it was a happy occasion.

And that leads to another
way in which they responded to God’s word.Verse 12 says they made “great rejoicing, because they had
understood the words that were declared to them.”

What a good example these
people are to us, in how they responded to the Word with both repentance and
rejoicing!

But let’s be honest, we
often fall short of that good example because we take God’s word for
granted.We Americans have the
Bible so available to us in different translations and formats.There are even any number of Bibles
packaged for different demographic groups.There’s Men’s Bibles, Women’s Bibles, Youth Bibles. There’s an American Patriot’s
Bible.Yes, there is.And I could get a good rant on about
some of these.But I’ll confine
myself to saying that we Americans are downright spoiled by the availability of
God’s word.

Don’t get me wrong.The availability of God’s word is a
great blessing.But sometimes we
let blessing spoil us, especially when that blessing continues for years and
decades.It is so easy for us to
take the Bible for granted.If we
catch ourselves doing so, and I know I have, let us then repent of that.

For we need to read God’s
word not just with our eyes.We
need to hear God’s word not just with our ears.We need to read and hear God’s word with more than just our
minds even -- although certainly we should let the word engage and shape our
minds.

We need to receive God’s
word with our hearts, just like those people in Nehemiah 8 did.We need to respond to the Word with what
Cramner might call a hearty response – with heartfelt repentance when we see we
fall short of God’s ways, and with rejoicing that our loving God is not silent,
but has given us his precious word, and that we get to hear it.What a privilege it is to hear and to
respond to the very word of God!

So let us shake off all
spiritual lethargy and cease taking God’s word for granted. And let us read and hear the Word with
both our hearts and minds – and respond with both repentance and joy.Amen.

Let us pray.

Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that the words
which we have heard this day with our outward ears may, through thy grace, be
so grafted inwardly in our hearts, that they may bring forth in us the fruit of
good living; to the honour and praise of thy Name, through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.

Let's give credit where it's due: Bill Clinton signed legislation that
attached serious work requirements to welfare. I wonder what he thinks about
what President Obama just did to one of his most worthwhile achievements.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Really this is so rich,
you can’t make this up.One Victoria
Rose Rodriguez, 18, testified in a Washington, D. C. federal court about how
haaard is it for her to get a ride to get an ID to vote in Texas.

Yet she somehow managed
to make it all the way to Washington to whine about it.Hmmm.

You know I bet if this
lazy (or is it dissembling?*) girl wants to go to a show or the mall, she
probably can manage to get a ride from friends.And then there is public transportation.But even putting those options aside,
there are any number of groups who would be glad to help her get an ID for
voting.One commenter did a little
homework on that:

I called 6 different "organizations" including a LULAC
office, an NAACP office, the local National Council of La Raza office, local
Democratic Party headquarters, local Republican Party headquarters and my
Congressional Representative's office and they all told me that they could and
would arrange for a ride.

But, but calling and getting
a ride is so haaaard.No, it
isn’t, you lazy princess.

Ms. Rodriguez deserves
to become the Sandra Fluke of Voter ID, i. e. a woman with such an overweening
sense of entitlement and giving such absurd testimony that she famously helps
make the case against the position
she espouses.

And this is the best Eric
Holder’s vote fraud enablers can come up with to make their case against Texas’
Voter ID law?You think just maybe
they do not have much of a case at all?

(*If the suggestion of
the possibility of less than truthful testimony offends, remember that the Roe
of Roe v Wade lied about being raped
by her own later admission.Liberal causes are so much more important than truthful testimony,
don’tcha know.And this young woman’s
testimony strains credulity at best.)

Due to the actions of General Convention, the South Carolina
Deputation has concluded that we cannot continue with business as usual. We all
agree that we cannot and will not remain on the floor of the House and act as
if all is normal. John Burwell and Lonnie Hamilton have agreed to remain at
Convention to monitor further developments and by their presence demonstrate
that our action is not to be construed as a departure from the Episcopal
Church. Please pray for those of us who will be traveling early and for those
who remain.

The Bishop of South
Carolina is expected to release a statement shortly.

This is so ridiculous,
it is hardly worthy of comment.But I want my readers to know to what absurd lengths Obama’s Attorney
General is going to enable election fraud (and hence the re-election of The
One).

This year, the Feast of
St. Benedict has special meaning for me.A few weeks ago, I spent about three days at the Benedictine Monastery of Christ in the Desert.It was a
very restful, enjoyable, and edifying time that God is still using in my
life.And I do intend to go back.

(By the way, my
apologies for not posting on my visit.I thought I did for some reason.Probably I so much intended to that I thought I did so without actually
doing so.Anyway, there are, however, some photos I took on my tumblr.)

Since then, I’ve been
reading a short book, Monk Habits for Everyday People, which is
written by a Protestant, namely Dennis Okholm, for Protestants. In fact, a
Baptist, of all people, recommended the book to me.I will have to thank him!

The book gleans the
Rule of St. Benedict and Benedictine practice for wisdom in everyday Christian
living. I haven’t quite finished it yet, but I find it very well written, very
readable, and yet profound, particularly the chapters on humility, much
emphasized in the Rule, and stability.Do be prepared to be nudged gently to self-examination as I certainly
have.

I could go into more
detail.But it would be better if
you get the book.As you can tell,
I wholeheartedly recommend it.